Knuckles reappeared screaming as he fell through a cloudy sky.

Thankfully, there was enough wind for him to use to catch himself in a glide…

A look down, however, showed him that there was absolutely nowhere for him to land. Nothing at all was around him except a bunch of empty sky!

Terrified, he kept aloft for as long as he could, but even he had his limits. Fatigue had forced him to start dropping again.

He had come close to consigning himself to death when he hit solid ground.

Huh?

Solid…transparent ground.

Uneasily, he tested his new footing. The road ahead was as stable as ordinary terra firma.

It was then that he took notice that his two-tailed friend had been trying to contact him.

"…ckles! Please, come in!"

"I'm here, Tails. Wherever 'here' is…" Nothing but sky as far as the eye could see, and apparently something that he wasn't alone in being able to see.

"Whoa… There seems to be nothing but air for miles! Well, there's only one way forward."

"Hmph, at least you don't have to run it…" With that, Knuckles went radio silent and got moving.

Rouge, on the other hand, didn't have the luxury of landing on something solid. She found that she'd flown over open water. Seeing nothing around for miles herself, she was eventually forced to take a deep breath and plummet underwater, she having run out of energy to fly.

Quickly resurfacing to take out a capsule containing her underwater gear (a girl had to be ready for anything, after all), she descended into what appeared to be the ruins of an underwater city.

It wasn't long before the bat was forced to alter her swimming arc to dodge an incoming spear.

What the…?

She took a closer look and saw that the buildings, while seemingly uninhabited, were armed with cannons and harpoons.

Swimming, obviously, was far from her strong suit, as her wings in general tended to slow her down in the water.

This was going to be…unpleasant.

To add to the fun, there was apparently someone or something aiming a spotlight at her to help point her out. Luckily for Rouge, there were blind spots…

She ducked and dipped behind and between cover as she moved, the light too slow to catch her. The question was, though, where to go?

Seeing no alternative at the moment, she decided to follow the various forms of strange alien sea life, ranging from "merely" fish with multiple heads to...eldritch abominations that she wouldn't be unseeing anytime soon.

What she wound up coming across turned out to be far more concerning than even all that.

Amidst several whirlpools that she had to work to stay out of the pull of (though the "fish" were doing just fine avoiding them), she saw something that certanly wasn't natural.

"Rouge... Rouge!"

The bat sighed in her breathing apparatus. She was just getting used to the alone time, too...

"Fox Boy. I was wondering when you'd show up."

Rouge could practically feel Tails gritting his teeth in d

frustration and worry. "You try setting up what's essentially a "walkie-talkie" system across increasingly distant DIMENSIONS!"

The stressed-out boy took a second to catch his breath after his outburst.

"Yeesh! Watch it, kid. You're gonna give yourself a heart attack."

She didn't imagine she was actually supposed to catch the next line.

"You're closer to that age-wise than me..."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

Realizing what he said, he quickly backtracked. "Sorry. I shouldn't have--"

"Just drop it. I promise I won't tell Sonic."

Thankfully, instead of going on a diatribe about her untrustworthy nature (as if that wasn't common knowledge), he asked about her whereabouts, which she filled him in on.

"Since when did you have scuba gear attatched to that belt of yours? Why would you even need it?"

"A girl's gotta be prepared for anything, wouldn't you say?" The bat-girl remarked as casually as she could given the circumstances.

The boy might've had a remark for that, but wisely bit it back. "I'd keep following those fish-things if I were you. They must be attracted to something…maybe having to do with our little ant friend and whatever he has planned…"

"I can only hope so." She ended communication, electing to keep her further thoughts to herself as she kept swimming.

I can't help but feel sorry for that little guy… He certainly didn't seem to have a choice in this whole thing.

From Knuckles' point of view, he was doing reasonably well, all things considered. Of course, those things happened to be a bunch of birds diving down from the sky (and coming up from what passed for the ground) trying desperately to kill him for some reason.

Speaking of the ground, it took him a few near-death experiences to realize that not all of the thin air was a fake out.

There were indeed times where he envied Tails' ability to fly. Or the birds for that matter.

At least there happened to be some updrafts that allowed him to catch some more air than the usual gliding.

It was when things got a little too quiet, however, that he really started to worry.

He stopped in his tracks when he saw something very solid and not at all like the transparent maze he'd been navigating blocking his way.

It looked like nothing more than a simple bird's nest, albeit massive in size and seemingly made completely out of clouds. It bore three eggs that didn't seem anywhere near hatching by the echidna's estimation.

He crossed his arms and closed his eyes in. "Hmm. Now where's your mother…"

SQUAWK!

They shot back open abruptly as his stomach dropped. "Of course."

He barely cartwheeled out of the way of the gigantic avian, its wingspan made up of a massive layer of cottony white, much like its smaller kind before it. Its standout features lay not only in its size, but in the massive crest it bore on its head made of darker clouds. Its large, swordfish-like beak had nearly skewered him from below!

One look at the alien bird's angry face told him that there was absolutely no chance of reasoning with this creature. He took a fighting stance.

Regardless of what was about to happen, he still felt he had to say it, being the animal lover that he'd always been. "Sorry about this!"

After what felt like hours of dodging whirlpools and landmines, Rouge noticed a rumbling sound coming from below her. Deep in the inky blackness below her…

Now that seemed suspicious. Curiosity getting the better of her, she began to descend deeper and deeper still, lighting her way using an onboard flashlight. In a strange way, her concerns were validated by the increasing number of landmines she had to avoid (and the remains of the alien fish that weren't so lucky, unfortunately). She cringed knowing that the Angel Island Guardian would have an absolute panic attack over all of this carnage. Even she, desensitized by her lifestyle as she was, found reason for pause.

Finally, she came across a huge drilling mech.

Getting just a little bit closer, she could hear grumbling and groaning, apparently in annoyance.

"Come on, come on, come on! That stupid rock has to be here somewhere..."

Deftly dodging a few more bombs circling around the outside of the thing (and developing a newfound appreciation for the night vision tech that she had "convinced" the suits at GUN to add on to all her gear), she made her way down to the window where a certain arachnid acquaintance of hers was desperately toiling away, trying to break a seemingly impenetrable section of rock.

She thought it fitting to say hi, so she waved from outside.

"Why hello, there. Find anything interesting down here?"

Via intercom, he answered. "Nothing yet, thanks to this stupid extra-dimensional space ore..."

After a beat, his eyes snapped open. He locked eyes with her...and promptly fell out of his chair. He quickly recollected himself.

"What? You?!"

"Yup. Instead of ol' Knucklehead, it seems like you have to deal with me. Of course, if it were up to me, we wouldn't fight. But it's your call."

"Go away, and then we won't have to."

Rouge entertained this idea, she really did, but there was that pesky little thing called a conscience that kept bothering her. Try as she might she couldn't get it to shut up.

So instead she decided to cut a deal.

"How about you turn this thing off and take one of your little portal things back to wherever you came from and we can forget the whole thing. Sound like a plan?"

The ant boy sighed deeply, now looking at her with annoyance. "It seems we're at an impasse then. I'll just have to make you leave."

In the blink of an eye the landmines that before had been released from the back of the machine started orbiting it as it surfaced from its digging spot.

Now it had its razor sharp point aimed straight at her, ready to rip through her like tissue.

"You really have issues, kid...and way too much time on your hands."

"Says the jewel thief."

"Touché..."

The echidna was beginning to lose track of how many near-death experiences he'd had.

He was used to evading fast opponents (tangling for years with Sonic and the faster breeds of Eggman's mechs had drilled that into his head by force), but that mama bird was really giving him a run for his money.

There were times when her attacks were just predictable beak jabs for him, yes, but other times, she would do something erratic, such as changing direction mid-charge or flat out trying to blow him away (which was more dangerous for him than usual considering his very thin footing).

Thankfully, the crest on her head right above her eyes seemed to be a blind spot for her. He managed to catch her at just the right timing as she charged at him and grab on. He had to hang on from there, not daring to look down as she flew around frantically trying to shake him off. He would finally get a shot or two in as she perched on more solid cloud cover.

Basically, it was like all the worst parts of a roller coaster were thrown in a blender and he just had to deal with it.

It wasn't hard to imagine that if a certain hedgehog was in his place, he'd be having the time of his life.

Nonetheless, three or four cycles of this later, the mother bird collapsed from exhaustion instead of roosting. Her tired eyes stared at the victor.

Knuckles wasn't that much better off, having to catch his breath and stop his environment from spinning before opening his mouth.

"Are we done…fighting now…?"

The bird trilled softly, as if in agreement.

"Good…"

She, with some difficulty, moved her head longingly towards her still untouched nest. The red rodent got the picture right away.

He knew what he had to do.

Focusing, he called upon a power he rarely used outside of an absolute emergency, and even then, he had to rule all of his other options.

His gloved hand glowing white, he gently touched the bird on her beak, allowing the power to course through him and into her.

It did his work. He was nowhere near 100 percent himself, so the best he could do was get her back on her feet.

Needless to say, she was quite shocked.

"There you go. You're healed…as much as I can get away with, anyway. Now go on…take care of those kids of yours!"

After a second, she uttered a grateful trill followed by a squawk that Knuckles took as a farewell as she turned around and left.

"Bye!" He called smiling and waving as she flew away.

He let himself soak up the moment before his smile disappeared and he went back to his mission.

"Hey, Kid! I'm done here, so if you're gonna send me to some other dimension or something, now's the time!"

He was kind of surprised when his wish was granted and a portal opened up. Maybe he should push his luck just a little bit…

"Could you also teleport me right next to the Emerald while you're at it? Thanks in advance."

With those words, he went through.

Rouge had never been the biggest fan of mazes.

While it was true that she'd gone through them before (and she could and even had sucked it up in the past for the prospect of many different treasures), she hated them in general. It was the long, winding paths, the confusing dead ends, and, as was often the case, the fact she couldn't just fly over them and get to the reward…

...which was why her higher-ups had always reported her as rash and impatient, and one of the reasons why she wasn't trusted to handle missions alone.

Unfortunately for her, impatience wouldn't get her anywhere here.

She was staring down a maze of lasers punctuated by a swarm of landmines.

If the animal carcasses above her were any indication, she did not want to risk touching one.

"Kid you're killing me here…"

Navigating through the web of lasers wasn't easy (she nearly lost a wing not that far in, and the damage she did sustain ensured that she wouldn't be flying around anytime soon), and on top of that, she had to figure out how to damage that drill once she got to it…

Gritting her teeth, she muddled through her task. After what seemed like an eternity, she made it to the ship. Now pointless, the lasers were deactivated.

"That was kind of…impressive," the ant found himself admitting before catching himself. "But it's not over yet!"

Of course, Rouge thought. If the boy had just surrendered there, things would've just been too easy.

In a change of tactics, twin compartments opened up in the sides of the machines, sucking up the mines before shooting them back at her with torpedo-like speed.

It took her all of her concentration to dodge the first volley. Mercifully, he needed time to recollect the scattered mines.

It was during this brief reprieve that she hit upon an idea. Most of these kinds of machines had some Achilles heel. Perhaps…like a wire that could be cut.

She felt for something in her belt…

Bingo. Her cutting tool! Hopefully this was sharp enough… She would know if she could just get close.

Another volley later, she would take advantage of that detante and slip to the back of the vehicle.

Her opponent noticed. "Hey! What're you doing back there?!"

She didn't have time to answer, as the mines were still an issue, and she didn't want to give him time to retaliate.

Lining her own laser to the paneling, she opened it, sending the casing floating away. With a silent prayer that she didn't cut the wrong wire, she got to work.

Something did wind up happening…

She would breathe a sigh of relief when it turned out that she cut the power to it.

The boy's frustrated grunts were music to her ears.

Ejecting himself from the now-useless craft, the boy glared at her first before looking around and up at all the carnage he caused.

Looking like he was going to be sick, he made a portal and took off into it without another word. It immediately sucked her into it.